Father Son Rendering/ Editing/ Gaming Build Project

if you can wait three weeks for the gpu i would. amd dropping newer gpu in two weeks and in nov nvidia dropping there gpu prices.

I would hold off for 2 weeks to see what AMD's new line looks like, also bump the memory up to 16GB (2x8) for heavy rendering work, perhaps think about a 128Gb SSD for a boot drive with some often used programs on, use the HDD for data and graphic storage. Get a Gold certified PS, Antec is a good brand, so is XFX, SeaSonic and Corsair, maybe 750 watts in case you want to add a 2nd card for SLI, a good PS can get passed to a future build unlike graphics cards that are the flavor of the day.

I think the ASUS Z87 PRO is a better general purpose board over the Hero, but both are real good.

Sorry I did look closer at your 1st comment, stupid me , was just looking at the parts and did not even notice that you had already purchased most of them, again sorry.

The 840 EVO is a fine choice, their are really no "bad" ones, just some a bit better than the others. Here is Tom's latest run down on best bang for the buck SSD's, perhaps give it a look over. I would think shopping for one on sale would be a good idea, just stick with the good brands and models, giving up a little performance that would not really be felt in the real world would be worth saving some money. You are going to have a great machine and an SSD would be money well spent on the amount of speed gained and overall system performance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-benchmark,3269.html

Your Corsair is good RAM so I would just keep it, you would lose money selling it I think. In gaming 8GB is all that you will need for a long time, the graphics work you want to do is where the 16GBs will be used and help performance. Just add another identical 8GB kit if you want to later on.

The only reason 2x8 is better than 4x4 is it leaves 2 slots open if you ever want to go to 32GB. And 2 sticks have better luck OCing them to higher speeds, but that is not a big deal, ASUS is one of the best MB to handle 4 sticks, they use "T" topography in their memory etch paths instead of "serial" that most other boards use, that allows for better speeds on 4 sticks.

Also 16GB help extend the life of your SSD over having only 8GB, your system does not have to swap so much if you have a lot of apps open at the same time, when I do graphics work it seems I always have around 6 to 8 apps open doing different things.

The HD-7970 is a great deal for the price right now, hard to believe they have lowered it so much from the launch price. If I were to advise on a 7970 I would say get 7970 GHz Edition or GTX-770. But now I have to just say wait a couple weeks for the AMD stuff and then perhaps another week to see what Nvidia answers with, run off the iGPU in the CPU for a while setting up your machine. The launch date for the 280x is set for Oct 8th, I have seen the pictures of the new MSI and ASUS 280x's, they are ready to hit the shelves.

It looks like the new R9 280x will be the direct replacement for the 7970GE. The R9 280X will be equipped with TAHITI XTL, which is a TAHITI XT rebrand. The reference clock is 850/1000 MHz. The memory will run at 1500 MHz, making it almost a pure HD 7970 GE refresh (depending if 850 MHz is just a clock on this engineering sample).

Radeon R9 280X will have 3GB GDDR5 memory with 384-bit interface. Tahiti GPU features 2048 Stream Processors, 128 texturing units and 32 rastering units.

It's hard to nail down what exactly Nvidia is going to do at that price/performance range against AMD, but they will do it pretty quick after AMD moves I think. Have read about 2 new cards in that area (just under top tier) the 760Ti and a 770Ti, and also either a Titan Ultra or 790 (but these are too expensive for me). The 760Ti may be the counter to the 280x and the 770Ti to the R9 290x (the 290 is set to be $599 I think, a bit out of budget).